A/N this chapter is weak, but it dealt with a lot of stuff that needed to be explained. Hopefully it doesn't suck to bad and you all keep reading. Thanks.. more soon... Lori


(Five minutes before she learned the truth)

"I asked you to leave it alone, Tallulah." Woody said harshly glancing from her to Jordan. Lu knew he was trying to figure out what had already been said.

"She needs to know Woody." She told him he swallowed hard shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"No, not now." He begged.

"Then when?"

"She almost died two days ago. I'm not going to let you-."

"Do I get a say in this?" Jordan shouted over Woody's declaration. He went to her side. Lu watched Jordan's hand run up his arm to his shoulder. He closed his eyes.

"Jo, I-." She was starring at him purposefully when his eyes clicked open.

"What ever it is it's okay." She said softly. "What ever it is I'll get through it." He took her hand now and kissed it. She needed to be told and she needed to be told now, Lu decided.

"It's not what you're thinking." She began.

"Stop." Woody said firmly. "I.. I should be the one to tell her."

"Woody.. I don't think…"

"Oh for God's sake someone just tell me." Jordan tossed her head back onto the stark white hospital sheets. "Where the hell is Santana? She'll tell me."

"Jordan.." Lu knew she could tell Woody was nervous. She pulled their clasped hands to his face and touched it with the tips of her fingers. He leaned into her. "I.. It's.."

"Shh.." She hushed him sweetly before looking at Tallulah. "I think you better tell me."


(Ten minutes before she learned the truth)

"Can I come in?" She hadn't expected Lu Simmons.

"Why not?" She said trying to smile.

"Where's Woody?" She looked around the room.

"I made him walk Lily to her car." Jordan said softly. "He doesn't know you're here?"

"No." Lu was studying her, Jordan tried not to squirm. "I think we need to talk."

"You should be talking to Woody." Tallulah made a face. "I didn't ask him to stay if that's what you think."

"No. I know why he stayed." She shook her head. "He loves you. You were hurt and he needed to be with you because he loves you." Jordan watched her face, it told her nothing, no anger, no pain. "Woody's a good guy Jordan."

"I know that." She said harshly, not wanting Detective Simmons telling her anything about who Woody Hoyt was.

"He didn't mean for.. It wasn't.." She shook her head as Jordan caught site of the figure in the door way. His mouth dropped open and he ran his fingers through his hair.

"What are you doing here?" He asked sharply moving between Jordan and Lu.


(A half an hour before she learned the truth)

"Woody?" He didn't like her tone.

"Lily?" He said softly.

"It's none of my business, but asa friend, of you and Jordan, I want to know what's going on." She told him in a sigh.

"Even if I could tell you?" He raised and eyebrow at her. "I wouldn't know where to start."

"Start with your relationship with Detective Simmons." Lily told him as he took her arm to cross the street.

"Nothing is going on there."

"Woody, please." She scoffed.

"It was a one time thing, before Jordan and I.." He stopped and looked at Lily to see if she knew about the Inn. She was clueless. "..started trying to work things out. She was with Pollak."

"So you slept with Lu to get back at her?" Lily asked.

"No." He said too quickly. "Maybe." He took a deep breath. "I didn't want her to find out Lily, I didn't do it to hurt her. It was to get back at her though, just for my own benefit."

"It's unethical." Lily murmured.

"Unethical?" He said in confusion. "She was still with that damn-."

"No.. not you.. her." She stopped walking. "She was your psychologist, she shouldn't have ever-. Never mind."

Woody was silent. He knew what she meant. He had thought about it. Wondering if he had slept with Lu so readily because he was emotionally vulnerable to her. In the entire four years he'd been 'with Jordan' he'd only slept with two people other than her, and both of them had been since the shooting.

"The day of the bombing.." He began to explain, urging Lily forward. "Tallulah lost her daughter three years ago Lily." Lily stopped again. "Her little girl and her husband were killed in a car accident. Her daughter was six, she was burned badly.."

"Like the children from the-." Lily's hand went to her mouth.

"I was the only one who knew and to tell you the truth I'd forgotten all about it. I was too wrapped up in myself and in trying to get back to Jordan. I wasn't very considerate of her that day. She asked to leave about seven times and I never even-." He'd just wanted to get done and get to Jordan, he glanced at Lily who was nodding in understanding. "She was-. When I found her crying-. Lily, I couldn't just leave her there."

"Woody." Lily sighed in understanding.

"I was just going to bring her back to the morgue, to you and Stiles, but she wouldn't leave." He closed his eyes for a second. "I should have called, put her in the car, handed her off to a paramedic. I should have done something. I was just so mad at myself for making her-."

"It wasn't your fault you didn't remember. She could have said something to someone else. She shouldn't have laid that on you." Lily shook her head. "It's…"

"Unethical." He nodded looking at Lily for a long time. "She's-." He stopped.

"What?" She asked softly. "Woody tell me."

"She's said some things, about Jordan. Made comments about things I told her about." Lily looked horrified. "Not to anyone else. Just to me, but-."

He recognized Lily's car taking her keys from her hand and unlocking the door for her. "I really messed things up, Lily."

"Woody you have to tell her." He nodded looking back towards the hospital.


(An hour before she learned the truth)

"Lily's on her way up." Jordan looked over at Woody as he clapped his phone shut and reopened his book, only to shut it again when she spoke.

"She's come everyday after work hasn't she?" Jordan asked slowly.

"Of course she has. She's worried about you." He answered as she looked him over.

"I'm starting to worry about you." She told him softly.

"I'm fine." He moved closer to her, brushing his fingers down her arm and back up again.

"You're tired. Your back has to hurt from sitting in that chair all day and you've barely eaten at all." She explained.

"It won't kill me to be a little tired. My back will be fine, and I hate hospital food." He countered.

"You hate hospitals." She huffed.

"But I love you." The smoothness of his voice made her smile, and that made him smile.

"You can go home. You know? Nothing horrible will happen if you do."

"Trying to get rid of me? Not going to work. I leave when you leave and that Jordan, is not until tomorrow." She smiled at him again. Satisfied, he went back to reading his book.

"Hey.." She called softly, watching his eyes raise up to hers. "I love you too."


(When she learned the truth.)

"Where do you want me to start?"

"Have you two-?" She stopped asking and Woody felt her readjust her hold on his hand. He wondered if it was for his benefit or hers. "Are you two having sex?"

"It was just one time." Woody whispered. "After the Sterling case, before we were back on track."

"When exactly did we get back on track?" She laughed, but Woody could see the seriousness in her gaze. He'd hurt her.

"Jordan I'm-."

"Woody stop." She ordered him softly laying her free hand over the spot their tangled ones rested on her stomach. "So.. one time?" Lu nodded, Woody wondered if she hadn't believed him. "What about the day of the bombing?"

He closed his eyes tightly, rubbing his thumb across the palm of her bottom hand. She calmly traced circles across the back of his. She was looking at him when his eyes opened. "Why did you stay with her?"

"Jordan, Woody stayed with me at the site because he knew something about my past that no one else did." Woody took a staggered breath and she squeezed his hand tighter. "Three years ago, I lost my family in an accident. My daughter was six, she had been-." She stopped and he watched her try to regain control.

"She was burned pretty badly." Woody whispered watching Jordan's eyes soften.

"Seeing the bodies of those children effected me more than I thought it would." She continued. "I was in pretty bad shape and he knew he couldn't leave me alone. I.. I don't really know anyone here. My family's still in Connecticut. I didn't have anywhere else to go and he knew that. He tried to get me to come back with him but I couldn't. I knew that was where they had taken the bodies." She was crying now and he almost felt guilty for the accusations Lily had brought into his mind. Woody looked back at Jordan, she watched Lu with an empathetic face. "I.. I just wanted you to know that he didn't stay because he wanted too."

With that she walked to the door.

"Tallulah?" Woody watched Jordan's eyes flutter before she spoke again. "I'm sorry, about your family, about your little girl."

Lu smiled weakly and nodded before she left.

"Woody." Jordan's voice was remorseful and it broke his heart.

"Don't Jordan. Please? It's still my fault. The wrong choice for the right reasons is still the wrong choice." He sighed. "And it didn't start with this and we know that. It started.. Hell, I don't know where it started. I'm-. I promised I wouldn't hurt you or reject you, but I did. I don't deserve you after what I've done. I-."

"Good." She whispered, he looked down at her face in confusion. "We're even then, because I've never deserved you." Her voice broke a little and she closed her eyes. "Never."